Facebook: Benchmark of F-Commerce Services

Jun 22, 2011

UPDATE: Image above has been updated on July 28, 2011. Please leave comments or additions on the more recent posting.

One of my recent obsessions is social commerce, the idea of shared shopping experiences online. On a global basis, Facebook has been leading the charge with socializing commerce in stores (check-ins at retailers) and online (using Facebook connect to link people in their activities across various sites.)

One of the most interesting permutations, however, is when the commercial experience takes place entirely within a social network. There are a few companies specializing in this domain, a selection of which we have pulled together for this draft benchmarking.

Anyone used these platforms? Any important platforms left off?

UPDATE: After re-posting the above infographic created by our team, Conversity added a short text explanation:

Merchants partner with 8thBridge to create social shopping experiences for their customers inside Facebook and on their ecommerce sites. Customers are empowered to shop with merchants on their own terms in a shopping experience that is portable, personalized, and participatory.

North Social has been building innovative and impactful social media applications, promotions, and marketing campaigns for some of the most forward thinking brands on the planet since 2006.

Leading brands and retailers leverage ShopIgniter to promote new product announcements with exclusive offers.

Payvment is a Facebook storefront for ecommerce merchants. The Payvment app lets you import your ecommerce products directly to your Facebook Fan Page, which means that users can shop and complete the transaction right there on the site.

Zibaba, a preferred Facebook development company enabling retailers and affiliates to easily set up Facebook storefronts directly on their fan pages, is a complete eCommerce solution.

Based in New York, Italy, and the UK, Usablenet is a global leader in extending companies’ online brands to their customers, wherever they are: on mobile, on Facebook, at an in-store kiosk, on a tablet, and more

Moontoast helps musicians, artists, authors, athletes, and other affinity-based brands monetize their social networks in a way that builds fan loyalty, leads to incremental revenue opportunities, and increases per-sale profits.

Milyoni has created the leading f-commerce solution in the market with over 50 brands representing over 60 million fans. Milyoni’s f-commerce solution Conversational Commerce rovides an online social shopping experience that operates completely within Facebook and an innovative suite of social merchandising tools to engage fans in conversations with implicit or explicit product promotions.

Discussion

Trackback URL for this post:

http://www.thomascrampton.com/infographic/f-commerce-facebook/trackback/

View Comments for “Facebook: Benchmark of F-Commerce Services”

James

We have recently developed a working solution for a Womans fashion designer Vicky Martin.
Our software allows user profile information to be used as part of the buying experience, i.e. it would recommend products based on likes, interest, activities etc.

The full working application can be seen at http://apps.facebook.com/vicky... and information about what our solution does can be seen at http://www.socialinnovations.c...

If you would like to find out more about our services, please email [email protected] or find us on twitter @socialplugins:twitter for latest product news.
Whgreider3

Hello Thomas,
I am also a social media addict. I am currently interning in Hong Kong at Global Sage a Executive Search Firm for the Financial Services industry. I have been looking for social media jobs in Hong Kong and have pursued one so far at a company called EF English Town for a "social media specialist" position. I would love to here your take on finding a social media job here and what you might consider before taking a position at a company like English Town.
Thanks!
Corey McMahon

Good breakdown. There are so many vendors out at the moment that it's quite hard to provide a comprehensive review of ALL platforms available. Ecwid is another entry level solution that we wrote about on our blog here:
http://loopstermedia.com/faceb...

There are a few others we're planning on writing about, but I think this infographic / post covers the major players.
Steve Murphey

I've also found the following F-Commerce applications which are worth checking out:
Voiyk-used by PopCap Games-http://www.shoptab.net/
ShopTab-used by Coke-http://www.shoptab.net/
SellAround.net-offers the ability to sell other people's products-http://www.sellaround...
Mia Perry

Fresh out of the oven:-) You should check the only F-Commerce platform that gives you the option to fully customize your store according to your brand, provides you with all the social features, and works seamlessly with big e-Commerce sites: Magento, Shopify, Zen-cart etc.
It's called StoreYa, and I highly recommend you to check it out!
www.StoreYa.com

Mia Perry
StoreYa's account manager
maxciccotosto

Hi Thomas,

As some below I'd like to point out that Venpop (http://venpop.com) is missing from the list. Venpop is currently powering more than a thousand retailers and used by BestBuy, Guess, Bulgari, and many many more retailers. Venpop is a spin off of the social commerce platform that powers Wishpot.com.

It provides a complete self-service solution for Facebook, Twitter and on-site.

If you need additional information feel free to reach out directly to me. I'll most definitely give you a complete demo!

Max
Venpop
Kate

what are your thoughts on TabJuice? (www.tabjuice.com) I heard it was the only storefront you can design and customize to fit your own particular brand. Branding happens to be important to me. Thoughts?
Jeremy

Thomas,

Just wanted to raise a flag about your recent f-com infographic and
perhaps find out why we were passed over when we are offering on and
off-facebook solutions for some of the top brands (GameStop,
Nordstrom, Banana Republic, etc.). I've attached a 1-page summary and
would be more than happy to answer any questions... although really I
am just curious how we missed mention - thanks!

Cheers,
Jeremy

Jeremy Stayton
Adgregate Markets
Paul Marsden

Hi Jim, thanks for the message and suggestions.

I agree it's important not to lose sight of the social features/actions (share. like, comment, send) that help product discovery/build awareness, and I've listed them in the suggestions. Building on this, I'm sure retailers - particularly small vendors - would also appreciate social features too, for instance for de-risking stock inventories - i.e. the ability to post a gallery of products that they're thinking of stocking, allowing fans to like them, and then ordering in those that are most liked (a la Threadless/Muji) - social inventory management.

Think the future of the f-commerce space is using the social piping in Facebook to help vendors sell smart and/or shoppers shop smart.

Happy to keep lines open and discuss!

Anyhow, I've cc'd Tom whose authoring the work-in-progress infographic.

Best, Paul
Jim Stoneham

Hi Paul,

I was looking at your recent post with the infographic comparing f-commerce solutions, and am concerned that it is too commerce focused -vs- social focused.

For example, the ability to share/tweet/like is pretty central to an effective f-commerce solution, but is not a column in the matrix. Also, making use of a shopper's social connections to discover products is very effective, yet not noted as a criteria. I realize you didn't author the infographic, but wanted to call these items out...

Happy to discuss this further should you like.

Jim Stoneham
COO
Payvment
Paul Marsden

http://socialcommercetoday.com...
jamespilcher

Good afternoon! Any chance we here at Kalio (www.kalioinc.com) could get considered for inclusion on your list?

We have full facebook integration now along with a robust and powerful ecommerce platform that also does mobile optimization.

Please contact me at [email protected] - thanks!
Feryx Lim

360Fashion make a qr publishing platform/mobile app which
facilitates social interaction. Within the app you can facebook and
twitter people!

They also make a social e-commerce platform for facebook, allowing
users to turn their facebook fan pages into a store (why bring people
into your store, when you can bring your store to people!) So users can
capitalise on their facebook fans.

They also do a Facebook live streaming application which attaches
itself to facebook pages. Within the app people can tag the videos, chat
live and display products.
I just thought that 360Fashion has created very interesting and socially targeted applications.
KuanYew

social commerce, or rather f-commerce, is my recent obsession too, together with mobile commerce, i think these two are the future, the next big thing, and for the affiliate marketing community, amazon associate sounds promising, just gotta wait for the official rollout for the general public, meanwhile, checkout pampers' new buy-diapers-on-facebook platform http://mashable.com/2010/10/01...
KuanYew

Social Commerce, or rather F-Commerce is my recent obsession too, and for the affiliate marketeers community, Amazon Associate on Facebook sounds promising enough, just gotta wait for the rollout for the general public http://mashable.com/2010/10/01...